


Now We're in the Ring and Coming for Blood

by TorunnSays412



Series: The Life Adventures of the Omega Pirate Assassin (And His Children) [3]
Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Character Death, F/M, Familial Relationships, M/M, Minor Grief/Mourning, happy endings again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 06:38:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16634870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TorunnSays412/pseuds/TorunnSays412
Summary: Ezio's family is strange, diverse, large, but he would do anything to protect them. Without them, he wouldn't be who he is; and while he isn't the man he imagined himself to become, he doesn't regret anything in his life.





	Now We're in the Ring and Coming for Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Lorde's 'Glory and Gore' cuz I read the lyrics and honestly pictured Ezio for a split second and that was good enough for me.

Ezio knew his family was different. 

He didn’t realize how different until he was on his way to adulthood, when he finally began to understand the hateful things the children his age shouted at him when he walked with his friends or went to school. 

//

His mother’s eyes are sad when they look at him, cleaning his face after yet another fight. “What did I tell you, Ezio?”

“To make sure the fight was necessary.” Ezio hisses as a particularly bad cut stings when Edward presses down too hard. 

“And was it?”

“Yes, Mamma.” 

Edward sits back and stares at him for a long time. “God, your father was right,” he mutters. 

“Mamma, why are people so mean to you?” Ezio asks, letting his mother tilt his head to wipe his cheek. “Why do the other boys say such mean things about you?”

Edward takes a long minute to think, eyes on the shelf behind Ezio, where Tessa had stacked the family’s books. “Other people are more concerned with strangers than their own problems. But you do deserve to know, Ezio. I had hoped it wouldn’t affect you so much.

“Do you remember when I told you about Altaïr’s father? How he died, and that’s why we came here?” Ezio nods. “Well, shortly after that, your father – helped – me with something, and you were the product. You were born out of wedlock, and Papà was already married, and some people didn’t agree with that. Everything they say about me and about your father comes from that.”

“But that’s not fair,” Ezio says. 

“It isn’t, but it’s how they live. They just don’t understand, Ezio, and you beating up their children because of it probably isn’t helping.”

“I won’t stop.” Ezio can feel the frown forming at the corners of his mouth. “I won’t let them say those things about you. “

“I know you won’t. Now go find Tessa, I think she had a job for you.”

//

If asked, Ezio would never admit he has a favorite sibling. He has too many to risk openly saying so, especially because Federico and the twins are alphas and would have no problem beating him up for it – although the twins probably wouldn’t win. Altaïr wouldn’t care, he has his own life in Spain, and Petruccio and Desmond were young enough Ezio could do no wrong in their eyes. 

In the privacy of his own head, Ezio would have to say Claudia is on top. She is so much like Zia Maria, strong, independent, and not afraid to say what she truly thinks. She is an omega, but unlike any omega Ezio has ever met before, outside of their family. 

The Italian omegas he meets – one of whom he’ll be expected to marry someday, if his father is to be believed – all grew up in nobility. They live proper lives, are soft-spoken, and wouldn’t be seen with a hair out of place. Claudia grew up wrestling with her brothers, with bruises and vicious smiles, as alpha as Ezio was. 

So when Ezio finds her crying on the bench, fury fills him, white-hot with its intensity, and he vows to make whatever could have made her so upset right. 

“What’s wrong, Claudia?” he asks her, sitting beside her and lifting his arm to wrap tight around her shoulders. 

She sniffles and turns her head to rest against his shoulder. “It’s Duccio,” she whispers. “He’s been unfaithful, I know he has. The other girls told me.”

Ezio’s finger clench against the fabric of Claudia’s sleeve. “I will make him pay,” he promises her. He hands her his handkerchief and she wipes her eyes. 

“Good,” she says, and there’s a fiery glint in her eyes that says if it weren’t improper, she would do it herself. 

Finding Duccio isn’t hard. He isn’t even trying to hide, arms around another woman in full view of everyone. 

“I love only you, my dear,” Duccio tells the woman as Ezio approaches. 

“And what of my sister?” Ezio calls, startling the woman. Duccio looks at him. 

“Father says I can do better than an Auditore,” he sneers, and Ezio knows what he isn’t saying. He knows he means Giovanni’s relationship with his mother, as platonic as it is, how strange the Auditore’s are with Ezio’s diverse siblings and how influential they are within this city. 

Ezio lets his fist fly towards the alpha’s face, and it isn’t long before Duccio whimpers his defeat and runs. Ezio’s fists are bloody, his temper high, and his sister deserves far better than that alpha anyways. 

Her face when he returns to her says she agrees with him on that front. 

//

Ezio, for all that he picks fights and sleeps with anyone he can, is not actually as wild as his parents - or at least, his father - believe him to be. 

(He could only truly be wild in his mother’s opinion if he followed in his mother’s footsteps and became a pirate, and even then his mother would probably just sigh and accept it, because for all that Ezio looks like Giovanni, there is no doubt he is his mother’s son.)

He doesn’t go out after finishing his duties for the day  _ looking  _ for a fight. He’ll finish a fight in a heartbeat, and he won’t hesitate to start a fight when it involves his family. But he never goes out intending to end up in a fight.

He spends just as much time at home with his younger siblings as he does out with Federico or his friends. He helps his mother and Maria around their homes - Edward more so; now that Tessa is gone, he needs all the help he can get with the twins and Desmond. He helps Giovanni when he needs it, and any time left over is spent with his friends.

There is no doubt he is a troublemaker - he always has been - but he is not  _ wild.  _ If anything, he’s the calmest of all of his friends. When they go out drinking all night, Ezio tries to make sure he’s home before the sun comes up. If he stays overnight with an omega, he will at least let Federico know most of the time, so someone will know where he is. 

He is far too conscious of his family’s position in the city, their strange situation, and he will do everything he can to avoid costing them that position. 

//

Zia Maria is in shock, Claudia is upset, and Ezio is furious. 

His uncle brings them to the villa, and the brothers remaining to Ezio are playing outside. Desmond yells and runs to Ezio, raising his arms for Ezio to lift him. Ezio does, holding his little brother close and watching as Haytham and Connor separate, Haytham going inside and Connor approaching them. 

Connor hugs Ezio briefly, then moves on to Claudia. By the time he reaches Maria, Haytham has returned and he gives his own hugs. Ezio finally puts Desmond down, feeling inexplicable sadness that he would never again hold Petruccio like this. 

“I will get your family settled,” Mario says. “I would like you to go buy yourself some new gear.” He tosses Ezio a pouch. “This should cover it.”

“ _ Grazie _ , Zio Mario,” Ezio says, watching as Mario walks Maria and Claudia into the villa, while the twins take Desmond and go back to playing.

When Ezio comes back, Mario takes him to his mother, and then Ezio spends some time training once Edward answers all his questions. 

The entire time, he is thinking of his family, what the best way to protect them is. 

Altaïr and Malik are in charge of the Spanish Brotherhood, living in the Assassin base with their children. If he could get his family there - or at least Maria and Claudia - then they would be safe from anyone left in Italy with a grudge against the Auditore’s. The problem comes with telling Mario, who is so eager for Ezio’s participation within the Brotherhood. 

But his mother brings up a valid point. Mario would never let anything happen to his niece and his brother’s widow, not while they were living under his roof, and knowing there are Templars in Italy who would willingly kill him if given the chance makes it difficult to excuse leaving. 

He says goodbye to his mother and brothers, leaving the port with his sister and returning to Monteriggioni, his mind on the future and what it entails. 

//

Over the years, Ezio makes many allies: Leonardo da Vinci, La Volpe, so many more. He keeps in contact with his mother and siblings, learns the twins have left Jaén to go their separate ways, Haytham to London and Connor to the colonies. 

He also makes enemies, although he tends to kill them before they can do too much damage. 

Life is so different now. To think, it wasn’t that long ago he was set to become a banker, follow in his father’s footsteps, marry some nice omega that his parents approved of. He still misses his father and his brothers, but he focuses instead on everything else going on. 

His life is a bloody one, his hands dripping red with the blood he has spilled, but he can’t find it in himself to regret any decision he has made to bring himself here. A part of him feels like he was always supposed to be here, no matter what would have happened that night. 

It just seems fitting that his start to this life was just as bloody as the rest of it.

Maria recovers, slowly, and Ezio helps in any way he can. Claudia chafes at the leash Mario keeps on her, checking the books and longing for a different life than she has been given. 

As the family alpha, Ezio could find her a suitable alpha or beta to marry, but when he tells her this her glare is just as vicious as ever.

“I don’t need a marriage, I need Zio Mario to let me do something besides the books!” she nearly shouts, and Ezio lets the matter drop. 

It’s far easier to let Claudia do what she can for herself, and let Mario deal with her rebellion while Ezio is out of the villa. 

//

In the end, Claudia does get married to the captain of Mario’s mercenaries. The few times Ezio manages to visit, she seems happy enough, and he knows her husband will protect her to the best of his ability. 

If he didn’t, he knows what Ezio would do to him, if Claudia didn’t beat him to it.

//

He feels the loss of his brothers and father less and less as time goes on. 

He still misses them, and thinks about them, but the ache that used to be enough to bring him to his knees at the thought of their deaths no longer pains him.

It is only when he sees something that reminds him of them that it flares up.

Every time he collects a feather for Maria’s box, he sees Petruccio’s young face.

Every time he passes a landmark in Firenze, he is reminded of the memories he made there with Federico.

Every time he glances at the villa’s books with Claudia, he remembers the life his father had wanted for him, the patience Giovanni had even when Ezio was rebelling.

The ache remains, always will, but it becomes more and more bearable as time goes on. Ezio doesn’t know how he feels about that.

//

Mario dies. The Auditore’s flee to Roma, and Claudia takes ownership of the brothel there. Ezio doesn’t agree with her doing so, but like always she is too strong-willed to truly care what he thinks, and she passes along information that is useful to the Assassins, and over time, Ezio takes the role of Mentor. 

Edward, when he tells his mother, is incredibly proud.  _ Your father would be too.  _

It is the days after he receives a letter from his mother, his brothers, that he misses them the most. He wishes he could visit, but there are still Templars to be taken care of. 

As he gets older, it becomes harder to keep in contact with his family. He travels so often, the only place they can truly reach him is Roma, and and it takes weeks for any correspondence to reach Connor and Haytham in the colonies.

Ezio is just always searching for ways to lessen the Templar influence in his country, and it is time-consuming. Between the traveling and the time it takes to gather any information, he rarely sees Claudia and Maria, and he can hardly leave and go to Spain and visit his brothers and mother.

Then he meets Sofia Sartor, and life changes once again.

The omega woman is captivating, well-read, and passionate. He meets her in Venezia, just weeks before she is set to leave for Constantinople. 

“Why must you leave?” Ezio asks her one day, while they’re sitting on a bench watching the market bustle with people. 

“I must tend my father’s bookstore,” she tells him, eyes on the fisherman’s stall. “At the very least,” she adds, with a meaningful glance at him, “I must make sure it falls into the right hands.”

He hums, and when the day comes, he walks with her to her ship and says goodbye. 

When she is gone, he curses himself in every language he knows, wondering why he would let her get away. 

But he knows the answer.

He’s the Mentor, he has duties here that he can’t pass along to someone else without good reason. Claudia would do it - she is an Assassin now, something Ezio fully believes their uncle would not be happy with, although he thinks their father would approve - and she has been in charge of financials for so long now, being the temporary Mentor wouldn’t be much different for her. 

But what reason would he give? He has fallen in love with a woman, and can’t bear to be apart from her? 

It’s not a good enough reason to allow the transfer of leadership. So he lets Sofia go. 

//

He writes the Mentor in Constantinople, someone who he has had very little contact with, but who he  _ does  _ have a connection with.

Yusuf Tazim agrees to look out for Sofia for however long she is there, and Ezio does not think he would have agreed if the other hadn’t of visited Spain on a mission several years before, and knew Ezio’s brother and his husband. 

Ezio discovers, in Roma, that Sofia’s bookstore is possibly related to the Assassins in that the building was once the trading post of Niccolo and Maffeo Polo. He writes Yusuf again to inform him of the information, and hopes Sofia won’t find herself in trouble because of it. 

//

Sofia returns, and gives Ezio the news that she turned her bookstore over to the Assassins. “It was the right thing to do,” she says softly, while Ezio is still reeling from the fact she returned to him at all. 

They are married in Venezia, and then they return to Roma, where Claudia gives her new sister-in-law one glance and smiles her approval. 

Maria approves as well, although she dies soon after, the sickness that had been afflicting her finally taking her. Her death hits Ezio hard, for she had been his mother just as much as Edward, and he had spent so long protecting her that finally losing her feels like losing a part of himself all over again. 

Claudia passes the brothel to Rosa, remarries. Ezio retires, passing leadership of the Brotherhood on to a younger man. Then he considers his options, and speaks to his wife and sister, and decides to go to Spain. 

Claudia remains in Roma, content with her husband and life, while Sofia and Ezio board a ship bound for Spain. 

//

Edward, while much older than Ezio remembers him being, is full of life still as he greets Ezio and Sofia. 

“My son did not exaggerate your beauty,” he tells Sofia, who blushes. “I was glad to hear he had finally settled down. He was so wild in his youth, his father and I were worried he never would.”

“Mother!” Ezio says, indignant, but Sofia laughs along with his mother and he is helpless against her laugh. 

They stay with Edward for a few weeks while they look for their own place in the city, and Ezio spends time with Altaïr and Malik for the first time in years. He watches his nephews train when they are not on missions, and Desmond teases him relentlessly for how old Ezio looks. 

“Someday you’ll look like this,” Ezio tells his brother, but Desmond doesn’t seem to care, and Ezio missed him so much he can’t truly be upset. 

Eventually they find a house, and have a daughter they name Flavia, then a son named Marcello. Ezio, for the first time in his life, feels content in the peace that retirement brings. For so long, his life had depended on chaos, on violence, on leadership, and now he can step away and be a husband and father above all else. 

Surrounded by family, Ezio is happy. 


End file.
